Stark On Red Sox Offseason Moves

This is going to be a wild summer int he AL East.

They are solid to moves, but to say that they are equal to adding Sabathia and Teixeria is ridiculous.

btw, You can get an anonymous scout to say anything.

This whole article is pointless. The yanks and redsox had completely different needs. The yanks needed big front of the rotation starters to anchor the staff, not older injured players with a high ceiling and bargain deals.

And why do these guys always put a negative spin on how much the yanks spend? (Hypothetically) If the Steinbrenner family generates $250 mil per year through the yanks and decides to put $200 mil of that money back into the team other than pocket it why is that considered a bad thing? I wish more owners were that committed to winning.

Just another espn column about how great the redsox are.

I guess I am getting sick of all the media outlets blowing the Red Sox.

It has been going on for a long time now.

Smoltz will be back in May and will probably pitch more innings than D.L. Burnett. And guess who wins if they go head to head in the playoffs,SMOLTZ! This probably will never happen as the Elderly Empire seem destined for another 3rd Place Finish! I love petty jealous posters!

If you have more and bigger needs, you will generally spend more money. End of story.

The Red Sox had FAR fewer holes to fill this offseason. They did not have a major hole on the club. They needed to bolster their bullpen (minor), add rotation insurance and depth Buchholz/Bowden (very minor) and any injuries that happen, and grab a utility guy or two.

The Yankees lost their 2nd and 3rd best hitter (Giambi and Abreu) and their best pitcher last year (Moose). Their rotation last year had also been a mess, with schleps like Ponson getting innings. If you were saying Pettitte was going to be resigned anyways, then they had 3 sure things in Joba, Pettitte, and Wang, with Kennedy and Hughes on the horizon.

They're too completely different scenarios, and they shouldn't be compared to each other.

Since there are people that are comparing Smoltz to Burnett, I just wanted to point out:

Smoltz irregardless of age has ALWAYS been a consumate professional.

Burnett on the other hand as history has shown only really puts in the effort on his "contract" years. Maybe its just a coincedence that his numbers work out that way, but dont you think that that is a HUGE risk? To pay someone that much money to play under that much pressure that may not even put in an effort now that he has the money he wants?

Also, Im pretty sure the Sox will baby Smoltz throughout the season so that have him as a weapon come September and October. If he makes 2 or 3 quality starts in September to help the Sox to the playoffs and a few quality starts in the playoffs then he was well worth the risk the Sox made. Burnett on the other hand will have to be at peak performance all year with no gaps in what he gives to the NY fans, media and on the mound or the city of NY will eat him alive.

I will openly state that I am a Red Sox fan, but I am not one of "those" Red Sox fans that has to try to cause trouble with Yankee fans. I respect the Yankee organization for doing their best to put forward a winning team for their city and their fans. NY has always been a classy organization no matter what Red Sox fans think. I actually think the Yankees made some really good moves this offseason, and it is certainly going to make the AL East Division very interesting this year.

Against the Grain,

I hope you were not directing that toward me. Please do not misunderstand me.

I do not believe I am cocky, just very passionate about baseball, and about my team.

Losing Tex was a big blow to the Red Sox, I will openly admit, and I still believe that with the additions the Yankees made, ON PAPER I think the Yankees have the edge this year in the east. Anything can happen to change that: injuries, trades etc. and I dont think the Red Sox will go down without making some kind of move to put them in a fight for the finish race with the Yankees for the Division and the AL Championship.

NATUREGIRL7712, just a hunch but i think that was aimed at me but I could be wrong.

I think that sometimes fans of NY and Boston lose sight of the fact that this is still a game, not a war. Im sure that if you ask members of each team, they respect each other as professionals and as people. People just get to angry and take things WAY to seriously

Couldn't have put it better myself Naturegirl.

This is the greatest game in the world and it is larger than just the Red Sox and the Yankees.

Everyone seems to be very high on pitching coach John Farrell. I guess we can't really judge. But if he's really that good in straightening out damaged pitching arms, then I think the Red Sox should sign Rich Harden and/or Eric Bedard. They could even be relatively cheap if they hit the DL this year again.

Not that I wouldnt want to see the Red Sox/Yankees matchup in October, or a Red Sox/National league World Series matchup. But I was actually really excited for Tampa last year and I was kind of hoping for a Tampa/Chicago Cubs world series... a win win for both cities...

whoops, not you naturegirl. I was referring to Red Sox Dynasty.

No worries... :-)

Thanks for summarizing articles like these. Thanks for the time saved from reading dubious articles like these.

Think of it this way (A lot shorter than this article): If the Yanks and Red Sox switched offseason moves, who leaves with the better offseason?

strikethree,

Obviously the Yankees made WAY more of a splash with big name free agents and really improved their team for this year. They also had way more ? marks in their organization to rectify.

The Red Sox had a pretty good team last year and really didnt have that many holes to fill so they chose a more conservative approach to free agent signings.

The Yankees gave themselves the edge this offseason in the east for 2009, but keep in mind that injuries or trades can change the core of a team at any time. Anything can still happen on either side.

The Sox could come up BIG with a trade for a HUGE free agent slugger in July that has Sox fans dancing in the streets ready to raise the World Series flag... and then the very next day the Yankees could be announcing a blockbuster trade for Jake Peavy and raising their own banner... Thats the beauty of it all... anything can and most likely will happen!

I wonder what is going to be said by the Red Sox Nation when the Sox overpay for Matt Holliday?

"I wonder what is going to be said by the Red Sox Nation when the Sox overpay for Matt Holliday?"

I'd argue that it is MUCH more likely that the Red Sox just extend Jason Bay. He's voiced his pleasure in playing there and shouldn't cost nearly as much as Holliday would on the open market.

Also, I really LOVE what Boston did during the offseason.

Obviously this team is going to have some huge risks in playing so many injury risks (Lowell, Beckett, Ortiz, Baldelli, Drew, Penny, Saito, Smoltz), but the upside on this team is huge.

They're hardly depending on any of those guys to be major contributors other than Beckett, Drew, Lowell and Ortiz. Saito would just give them another bullpen ace, Penny and Smoltz are high-upside rotation fodder, and Baldelli is a high upside fourth outfielder that could easily man any OF position at any time so long as he's healthy.

Considering the risk in giving long term BIG money to any pitcher, I think signing multiple high upside guys to incentive-laden contracts is a good way for a team like Boston to go about things. They can easily afford the sunk costs of a mistake, and if one of those guys has a monster year then it could potentially make up for failures in the other three signings.

No mention of the trade for Ramon Ramirez?

I think the Yankee and Red Sox off seasons are two different animals. The Yankees did what they had to and the Red Sox did what they had to. Neither team hurt themselves (immediatly) with their off seasons.

A Yankee fan calling out the Red Sox for overpaying? That's interesting.

theres a pretty good reason burnett is paid more than those old, rehabbing players. hes much, much better and in his prime and elite.

id rather pay the best than hope some 40 yr olds and bad shoulder pitchers find the fountain of youth

I wasn't calling out the Red Sox for overpaying I was simply saying that all teams do it and other fans shouldn't criticize other teams for spending some money.

Posted by: Against The Grain | March 10, 2009 at 08:41 PM

Agreed, 100%. My bad for misunderstanding.

id rather pay the best than hope some 40 yr olds and bad shoulder pitchers find the fountain of youth

Posted by: Josh | March 10, 2009 at 08:45 PM

That's fine. But Burnett isn't the best. He's a lesser pitcher than Smoltz, even recently. Smoltz had a 2.57 ERA before he got shut down, which is an admittedly small sample. But in 2007, Smoltz was the better pitcher.

Smoltz:
14-8, 3.11 ERA in 205 innings, 197 SO/47 BB, 1.182 WHIP, 6th in CY and an AS appearance

Burnett:
10-8, 3.57 ERA in 165 innings, 176 So/66 BB, 1.189 WHIP

Plus Smoltz is a freak. Give me Smoltz any day of the week.

1.) First things first - I am a Red Sox fan. And like "Naturegirl" I'm not so blinded by my team allegiances that I won't give the Yankees credit when they deserve it.

2.) To my other Red Sox fans:

Shut up about CC Sabathia and his weight. We signed 2008 Curt Schilling and 2005 David Wells. Sabathia is the best pitcher on the planet and it kills me that the Sox didnt make a more serious run at him (Though I dont mind them not wanting to go 7 years on any SP). And enough with this "postseason history" garbage. The last two times he was in the playoffs he was clearly gassed by teams that taxed his arm pretty hard. The Yankees have enough depth that this shouldn't be an issue. Plus when was the last time any pitcher on this current Sox rotation pitched 240+ IP in back to back seasons?

I think the big thing that justifies the Yankees signing Sabathia, Burnett and Teixeira is that this team had some serious money coming off their books during the winter.

Yeah, they spent an outrageous amount of money, something no other team could do, but no other team is baseball is capable of having $70M+ come off their books in a single winter. They were essentially replacing the massive salaries of Giambi, Mussina and Pettitte with those of Tex, Sabathia and Burnett.

Either way, maybe all three guys break down and the team is left in an awful position long term. The risk goes both ways.